I'm a serial entrepreneur based in Chicago, and I love all things related to startup life. I'm CEO and cofounder of matchist, the leading matching site for entrepreneurs and startups to find top quality developers. I'm also cofounder of Entrepreneurs Unpluggd, a media and events company that shares entrepreneurs' stories. I'm currently getting my MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Previously, I was a founding member of FeeFighters, a venture backed payments startup acquired by Groupon in 2012.

5 Best Practices for Working with Developers

One of the biggest problems I’ve seen in early stage tech startups occurs when conflicts between technical founders or dev teams and business founders threaten to break the fragile startup fabric apart. Usually, problems stem from misunderstandings rather than malice or product issues.

Having worked with plenty of developers in the past and considering myself to be someone who straddles both worlds (I can code!), I can see patterns emerge that come from business founders and technical founders just not speaking the same language. Here are some tactics to think about if you find yourself frustrated or unable to move forward because of this issue:

(I must preface these tips by saying that these may be stereotypes or generalizations, but with the many developers with whom I’ve been lucky to collaborate, they hold true).

1) Developers are extremely logical- Discussions with developers must be approached from an extraordinarily rational and logical mindset. Instead of wooing them with ideas or promises of greatness, explaining exactly how and why what you want something is paramount. Think of your argument ahead of time before you get used to breaking ideas down into logical frameworks. As an “ideas person” I’m always the one saying “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” or “Hey! How about we….” then almost always my technical cofounder for matchist Tim, will furrow his brow and begin to barrage me with questions I think aren’t relevant. However, his questions are always logical permutations that stem from the idea’s goal. Now that we’ve worked together for years, I know how to frame my ideas in a way that makes sense for him.

2) Measure development time against marginal utility- When you have big ideas, they will often take a lot of time (and money!) to implement. If you’re a resource constrained startup, it’s important to weigh new features against their relevance in achieving a goal. For example, if I want a cool social plugin added to the blog section of the site vs. fixing a bug that keeps users from communicating with each other: the bug should always come first. Now, before even proposing ideas to Tim, I ask him approximately how much development time it will take to do XYZ before exploring. At a tech startup, dev time is the equivalent of gold.

3) Small changes can mean big differences-If you want to implement something, but you find a way to do it that takes a lot less work/time (like 3rd party

Ruby on Rails (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

software instead of building something custom) go that route. Think about ways to simplify features and get to a point where things can be tested without too much dev time. Often, your technical counterpart(s) may have ideas about how to do this: Listen.

4) Learn their language- You don’t need to spend years getting a degree in computer science to understand what an API does. Developers inherently respect someone who speaks their language, and they can spot a faker from a mile away. Invest some time learning the basics of coding. If you don’t know what “Ruby on Rails” means then it’s a problem if you want your site built in it. There are lots of great tools available to help you learn to code (TreeHouse, CodeCademy,Starter League). Now don’t get me wrong: I don’t think everyone should be coding, but learning a bit will go a long way in building a relationship, understanding your product, and gaining street cred. It will also help you achieve the first point (thinking logically) since that’s how you code.

5) Accept that things will always take longer than you expect- Don’t fight it. Developers will run into bugs, encounter unforseen issues, and any number of other things that will cause a delay in development. Roll with the punches instead of putting up a fight.

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